Aubrey stepped through the hallway, her footsteps echoing off the concrete walls. The floor and walls were slick with blood, splattered and streaked in a macabre pattern of carnage. Dismembered limbs and mutilated bodies littered the ground around her, making it difficult to walk without slipping and sliding on gore.

She walked slowly, deliberately, as if savoring each step.

Her eyes roamed over the gruesome scene, drinking it all in with a sense of almost reverence. She glanced down at herself, noting the spatter of crimson specks on her clothes, as well as the flecks of flesh and bone caught within her nails. The numerous wounds she had received during the fighting had mostly closed, though several still leaked dark liquid in thin streams.

She felt stronger than ever.

Her lips curled into a sadistic smile, and she chuckled to herself, a raspy sound that bounced off the walls and echoed back at her.

She paused at one of the fallen cloaked figures and nudged it with her boot, rolling it over so that it faced upwards. The dead man's face stared blankly up at the ceiling, his neck torn open and his throat slashed. He lay still and motionless, his hands hanging limply beside him, empty except for a single broken dagger.

She knelt down beside him, reaching out to gently touch his cold cheek with one hand. She trailed her fingers across his skin, caressing him tenderly as she looked deep into his lifeless eyes. A low growl emanated from deep within her throat as she leaned closer towards his ear.

"Now that," she breathed softly, "is how you handle trash."

Standing up again, Aubrey took another moment to take in her handiwork. Her eyes scanned across the corpses strewn throughout the hall until they came to rest on the last figure remaining—another of the masked men, curled up on the floor, clutching at an injured leg and whimpering in pain.

He lifted his head, glancing over at her before dropping it back down onto the ground. "P-please... don't kill me..." he begged.

Aubrey snickered, taking a few slow steps closer to him. "Depends. Can you tell me something useful?"

"Anything!" the man pleaded. "Anything you want! Just let me live!"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "All right then."

She crouched next to him, resting one arm across her knee as she brought her face close to his. She smelled the fear in his sweat—a mixture of bitter saltiness mingled with copper pennies. "Let's start simple," she began. "What's your name?"

"M-My name is... my n-name...?" he stammered through trembling lips.

Aubrey nodded. "Sure. That seems like something I should know about someone who's begging for their life. Don't you think so?"

He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing up and down as he tried desperately not to choke on his own terror. "Jake. My name... It's Jake. Just call me Jake."

"Okay, Jake. Nice to meet ya." She flashed a wicked grin as her crimson eyes gleamed brightly within the shadowed hallway. "So tell me, Jake. Who sent you? And don't you dare hold back any details now. We're both adults here, and I don't appreciate being lied to."

He whimpered, clutching at his injured leg tighter. "T-Twilight Cabal, we work for the Twilight Cabal!"

Her eyebrows shot up slightly.

Now that was a name she hadn't heard since those grave robbers mentioned it back when she awakened at the cemetery. She'd been meaning to look into that whole thing more since then but kept getting sidetracked.

"Oh," she purred, giving him an intrigued look. "Now there's something useful. Keep going..."

"It... they..." he sputtered out. "It was just supposed to be reconnaissance... One of the glyphs here got triggered, so someone higher up sent a few of us to check on this place. And we found... um..." he paused and gestured towards the dead bodies scattered about. "...you."

Aubrey raised an eyebrow, tapping her fingertips lightly against her knee as she watched him. "Go on..."

His words tumbled forth faster than before. "We were told to bring in anyone snooping around here by force. I... we weren't expecting..."

She smiled sweetly as she reached towards him. "You weren't expecting me to kill all your friends?" She placed a single finger gently under his chin and slowly tilted his head until his eyes met hers. "Well, it certainly won't be the first time someone underestimated me..."

She stood up again, wiping some of the gore away from her face with one hand. Her gaze never broke away from his. "So let's talk specifics. Why does the Twilight Cabal care about this place?"

He hesitated, biting his lower lip. But when Aubrey leaned close again and used her Mood-Inducing Cantata ability to increase his willingness, he started spilling every detail. And once the dam finally burst, the man couldn't stop talking.

"The Luminous Consortium hired us to monitor the area, and when we detected signs of trespass, to investigate," he revealed between rapid breaths. "They told us it was supposed to keep prying eyes away, and if we caught anyone, to either scare them off or take them in for questioning."

So, the Twilight Cabal have some kind of arrangement with the Luminous Consortium?

"But I broke into this place not too long ago. Why didn't I see you assholes back then?"

"We did come down here once. But we didn't find anyone. So we set up new wards throughout the halls and left it at that. It wasn't our job to keep tabs on this whole area. This time, eight of us were stationed close by so we could get here faster should anything happen again."

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This was all starting to make a lot more sense now, at least on his side of things.

"Where were you planning on taking me if I hadn't fought back?"

"To an interrogation chamber in one of our bases nearby. That's all I know! I'm just a grunt... I swear... Please, please... please don't kill me..."

His pleas became increasingly desperate as he began crawling across the floor toward her feet. He clutched desperately at her legs, groveling before her like a beggar pleading for alms.

She nudged him away with one boot, shaking him loose from her ankles. "Stay put for a bit. I'll be back. And if I come back and you've tried escaping, that will not end well for you."

She turned away from him and strode back around the corner where Thaddeus hid out of sight the entire time.

"You heard all that?" she asked him.

Thaddeus nodded. "Indubitably. It does indeed seem that the aforementioned 'Twilight Cabal' possesses knowledge on the subject thou seekest. However, 'tis unclear whether such data hath any bearing on thine present objective."

She shrugged. "Not yet anyway. But, I'd like to have a little chat with someone in charge there and figure out what the deal is. Maybe they could answer some questions I've got about some other stuff as well. Do you know anything about them?"

"Only that they are an unsavory organization devoted entirely unto studying Unhallowed, though they remain sufficiently secretive that naught else has been uncovered regarding their activities or motives."

He paused for a moment, glancing back around the corner towards Jake still curled up on the ground near a pile of bodies.

"They are the most wanted criminal group within Mordenstradt, even more so than the Sect of Alkathonyx."

Sect of whatnow?... Whatever, probably not something I need to know about.

Aubrey gave another small shrug, tapping her chin in thought.

What if she allowed herself to get captured? Take her to this interrogation chamber, then break out from there and find some higher-ups to question. That sounded like it had a decent chance of working—assuming there wasn't anyone there she couldn't handle, or who could overpower her, or get her trapped in some kind of weird Unhallowed binding cage... or... uhh... lots of things could go wrong... but it also might work?

"I'm thinking of letting myself get captured by them."

Thaddeus stared at her blankly, tilting his head ever so slightly to one side. "Forgive me; I confess my apprehension. Pray tell, what wouldst be achieved thereby?"

"If I'm not making any progress searching for Helena and the Luminous Consortium elsewhere, then it could be a way of forcing their hand a bit. Make them come out of hiding long enough to interrogate me. Besides, I'm getting tired of running around blindly. And since when did this whole 'step into trouble every few minutes' thing stop working?" She paused, glancing down at her feet for a second before adding: "Okay, don't answer that."

But he seemed concerned. "'Tis not without peril, to say the least... Unhallowed you may be, yet that does not render you immortal. Know that aside from Hunters, the Twilight Cabal hath trained its members explicitly unto subduing such creatures as thyself."

"I handled eight of them just fine. What makes you think they'll fare any better?"

"The ones you just fought didn't seem prepared for an Unhallowed encounter. They had weapons and equipment made for human targets."

Aubrey frowned. He did have a point there. Those eight had seemed pretty unprepared to deal with someone like her, yet they were still pretty competent fighters—enough so that they'd managed to get a few good hits in through her Harmonic Synesthesia's warning system.

She rubbed the still sore spot on her shoulder where one of the men had managed to cut her before she disemboweled him.

"Well, I need to do something to move things along. Otherwise, I'll have to keep waiting for our Hunter friends to get their investigation rolling, and that sounds like it'll take a while."

Thaddeus nodded slowly. "Verily. Though 'twould not behoove thee to act too swiftly. Thou must ascertain as much information concerning thine adversary as possible afore launching thine endeavor. The fate of an army often lies in the preparation leading up to its engagement."

"I know that," Aubrey replied with a slight edge of irritation to her tone. "But I still think this could work. It'll just need some tweaking first. It always seems to come down to luck somehow anyway..."

"Luck plays little part when fortifying one's foundation. Nevertheless, if thou decides't to engage in this endeavor, it may behoove thee to enlist the aid of thy human compatriots to enact a contingency plan."

Aubrey raised her eyebrows quizzically. "What do you mean?"

He seemed to gather his thoughts before continuing. "A contingency plan—a strategy to be put into motion in the case of failure."

"I know what the word means. I'm asking about your suggestion."

Thaddeus hesitated a moment longer, seemingly searching for the right words. "I propose to enlist the aid of Lady Seraphine and the gentlemanly Hunter named Levy to act as thy rescue force. If thine undertaking should fail, thy allies shall step in to ensure thy safe extraction."

Aubrey nodded thoughtfully, tapping her chin once more. "That might work... but how would we get in touch with them in time?"

"I shall seek them out and convey our intentions in full. Though 'twould dependeth heavily upon whether they may be willing to assist in our scheme."

"Are you sure you'll be alright? They might be willing to leave me in peace, for now at least, but I'm not so sure they'd treat you the same way."

Thaddeus waved his hand dismissively. "Have no worries for mine own sake, as long as thine goal canst be accomplished. Those two doth pose little threat to one such as I."

She gave him an unconvincing frown. "If you say so. I've only seen you fight once, after all."

Thaddeus bowed solemnly from his waist. "Then consider my capabilities well in hand. I assure thou I shall handle things accordingly." He raised his head again and offered her a slight nod. "Forsooth, should thou desire to enact thine ploy in haste, then I encourage thee to do so hence. Time waits not for anyone."

"Right... wait, hold on. Why can't you and Ceddy be the ones to rescue me instead?"

Thaddeus shook his head. "'Twould be imprudent for us to act directly. Thy vendetta is for thee alone. For me and Cedric to interfere further might serve to cloud the matter beyond recognition, and could lead to further complications in thine quest. Moreover, Hunters may prove far more useful in dealing with those of the Twilight Cabal than we wouldst be. They have a far greater familiarity with such matters."

"Fine, I see your reasoning..." she grumbled grudgingly. It wasn't what she wanted to do, but it made some sense to bring those two into it. And besides, she had to trust that Thaddy knew best. If he said this was important to do, then there must be some value to it, whether she saw it herself or not.

"...Okay fine. If you think this whole thing will work out, then let's do it. Just make sure to give Seraphine and Levy all the details. Otherwise, they won't know where or when to come help me out."

Thaddeus seemed satisfied by her words. "Very well, then I bid you to commence thy plan at once."

Aubrey nodded and turned around the corner, making her way slowly toward Jake, who still lay there clutching at his leg.

The poor bastard trembled and cowered when he heard her approaching footsteps echoing behind him.

She stopped just outside of arm's reach and stared down at him. He shrank back at the sight of her, but when she made no move to approach further, he started to look almost relieved.

He swallowed hard before daring to ask, "Are... Are you letting me go?"

Aubrey offered the sweetest smile she could muster under the circumstances. "Sorta. I decided to go ahead and turn myself in. And you're going to help me do that."

Jake blinked. "W-what? But you just—you—why would you even—?"